Let me tell
you about three refugees, who have come to Malaysia seeking asylum from
persecution and violence
.
The three
men are from Afghanistan. They did not know each other in Afghanistan, and they
were persecuted there for different reasons. They decided to go to Malaysia to
seek a life in safety and peace. They dreamt to earn a living, and to ask their
family to come and join them once they were in a stable situation.
That was not
to be.
The three
met at a Malaysian immigration detention centre for staying illegally in
Malaysia. They were detained for eight months before UNHCR could get to them.
They were released, and moved to Kuala Lumpur.
As refugees
they are not allowed to work. Anyway, only one of them could speak English; he
found employment soon. The other two do not speak any English; one of them also
cannot read, so they had problems to find a job, any job.
From the
little money they had, they all chipped in and rented an apartment at the
outskirts of KL. They had to pay two months deposit and a deposit for
utilities. The monthly rental was RM 800.00; they could not find anything
cheaper.
That is when
we at MSRI came to know them. The two unemployed refugees were severely
depressed about their situation and needed support, which MSRI provided.
One month
ago, the man who can speak English left the other two, without even saying
goodbye. I guess he had been afraid that the other two would ask him to come
along if he told them about going to another place. The two refugees left
behind felt completely betrayed by their friend, with whom they had endured and
shared so much hardship.
What was
equally daunting was that from now on they had to pay for the rental of their
apartment. Both are still jobless, and the rental was way too high to be paid
by donations from MSRI. So they were looking for another place.
They figured
that they had at least some time to find a new, cheaper place, and then would
get back most of the deposit to pay a while for their living expenses.
They were
lucky to find a room for them to share which only cost RM250. They informed the
apartment owner. The owner, who turned out to only be an agent for the owner,
refused to give them back the deposit. He
demanded the next rental of RM 800.00 which is due on the 20th of the
month.
After MSRI
intervened, the agent said that if they would leave the apartment immediately,
before the end of the month, he would give them back one month rental from the
deposit of the new tenant. The deposit for utilities bill would not be returned. If they wanted to stay on they had to pay the full
rental.
This person,
the agent, is using his position to exploit the refugees, who are in a very
vulnerable position because according to Malaysian laws they are ‘illegal
immigrants’, they do not have a residence permit and are not allowed to work.
Any Malaysian tenant would stay in the rented apartment for three months
without paying the rental, before moving out. I am sure that if these two
refugees do exactly that, the agent will call the police to have them arrested.
This is
exploitation! By leaving asylum seekers
and refugees in legal limbo until their resettlement in a third country, which
can easily take six years or more, they are open to any exploitation by
anybody:
-
- Some
employers make them work 14 hours per day, seven days per week, 52 weeks per
years (they have no free day per week or paid leave) for low wages;
- -
Some
employers who do not want to pay the salary at the end of the month will call
the police and denounce them as ‘illegal’.
It is time,
that asylum seekers and refugees are given the means to take care of their own
lives by giving them work permits until resettlement. It does not make sense to
‘import’ tens of thousands of foreign workers from Bangladesh, Indonesia, and
other places in the region and ignore the refugees and asylum seekers who are
here.
There are
about 100’000 refugees in Malaysia, including children and the elderly. Some of
the refugees are highly educated, but many others had little or no schooling.
And I don’t know how many would be able to do the work in jobs for which
Malaysia tries to attract foreign workers.
What I know is that more than half of all problems that refugees and
asylum seekers have in Malaysia – including health care, and education for
their children – would immediately be solved by them being allowed to work
legally.
None of us
will have any assurance that we will never have to seek refuge in someone
else's country. All we can hope for is
that if and when such tragedy befalls any of us that there are people who
extend a helping hand, not try to exploit and rob us of the little we have.
